


Inbox (9 unread)

by ber_g



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Pre-IT Chapter Two (2019), Social Media, implied Richie Tozier/Eddie Kaspbrak, reddit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23677309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ber_g/pseuds/ber_g
Summary: Richie Tozier doesn't have a Reddit account and he's never read a Bill Denbrough book in his life.(crossposting from derrykink)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37





	Inbox (9 unread)

**Author's Note:**

> Original prompt: "Pre-Chapter 2 with Richie undercover on reddit desperately trying to no homo the homoeroticism of one of Bill’s books or an adaptation of one. Bonus points if the characters involved wuth the homoeroticism in question are thinly veiled versions of Richie and another male Loser."
> 
> I'm sorry in advance if the formatting on this is a nightmare. Crossposting this and my other fills from derrykink @ dreamwidth; this was originally written and posted there in 2019.

_r/BillDenbrough_ \- Posted by u/KYBigDog77 10 hours ago _☆x2_  
 **Are Ellis and Gene in Whistle In The Woods Gya?**

Hi all, first time poster. I’m pretty new to Denbrough’s writing (saw the Black Rapids movie last year with the wife and loved it so I’ve been working my way through his older stuff) and I had a question about The Whistle In The Woods - spoilers ahead! I thought Ellis and Gene were meant to have a brotherly bond but my wife is insisting she thinks they’re gay. I asked her what made her think that and she said a lot of the scenes that made me see them as brotherly, like sharing the porch swing and the scene in the ice cream shop. I guess the sticking point is the sleepover scene though, I thought it was meant to evoke that sort of end of childhood memory of boys but the wife is convinced that the line “slept together like a pair of bachelors” is implying they had sex. Has Denbrough ever said anything about it or how we’re meant to read their relationship?

Edit: Sorry about the typo in the title, can’t fix it!

Edit 2: Thanks for the gold, kind stranger!

_89 comments - Give Award - Share - Save - Hide - Report 74% upvoted_

_Glowwww_ \- 57 points - 10 hours ago - _edited 9 hours ago_  
Hi, and welcome to the sub! Please check out the sidebar for rules, relevant links, to set up a flair, etc.

As to your question, it’s a subject of some debate. Some people think that as you said, they’re meant to evoke a sort of idealized memory of childhood viewed through a nostalgic lens - after all, TWITW is generally considered a love letter to Denbrough’s childhood in the 80s. On the other hand, some scenes like the second trip to the library can be interpreted to mean that Gene at least has feelings for Ellis, and the sleepover scene you mentioned is somewhat ambiguous and the dialogue in it could be seen as a confirmation that Ellis also had feelings for Gene. Denbrough’s never commented on it publicly so we really only have what’s in the text to go off of unfortunately.

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> _KYBigDog77_ \- 25 points - 10 hours ago  
> Thanks! So the answer is that there’s no answer, basically? Huh, I didn’t see any gay stuff in the other books of his I’ve read so it would surprise me if this one was meant to be like that.
> 
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> 
> 8 more replies

_ghtykjjljhfghjlhuyjadji9999_ \- 30 points - 9 hours ago  
Ugh, stupid shipper debates. This is all anyone ever cares about, is who’s gay with who. Does no one care about the writing??? so stupid.

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> _Denbrooo_ \- 47 points - 9 hours ago  
> no one’s making you click the link, dude, if you think its a stupid question just downvote and move on.
> 
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> 
> 4 more replies
> 
> _Prettiestkittiestwittiest_ \- 8 points - 6 hours ago  
> How do u remember ur username????
> 
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_AndyJean1993_ \- 26 points - 7 hours ago  
Glow is technically right in that Denbrough’s never said anything about it one way or another. But honestly the evidence is all there in the text - the bachelors line is pretty obvious but there’s a lot more (and, hell, Ellis straight up “kisses all over Gene’s face” when they find him alive in the pantry, it’s not exactly subtle). I wrote up a post with more evidence on my tumblr over here that goes over everything. WITW is the most overtly homoerotic of Denbrough’s books but it’s far from the only one with some serious undertones.

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> _biggestloser1989_ \- 19 points - 7 hours ago  
> I mean none of that stuff is actual evidence though, you’re just putting a bunch of quotes about them being friends together and pretending it means something totally different. 
> 
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>
>> _AndyJean1993_ \- 11 points - 7 hours ago  
> Is that not whgat literally any kind of literary analysis is? yeah, nowhere in the book does it say “Gene and Ellis totally wanted to suck face” but they’re a pair of fourteen-year-olds in the 1980s and it 100% makes sense they would’ve been closeted, given their living situations. They might not’ve even realized that their feelings for each other were different than their feelings for the rest of their friends but they’re 100% queer coded
>> 
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>>> _biggestloser1989_ \- 10 points - 7 hours ago  
> Okay first of all Gene’s not that oblivious, he wouldn’t have been in love with Ellis and not realized it, he’s very perceptive. And secondly what does “queer coded” even mean? Neither of them ever says anything about liking guys or does anything that would be weird for just friends to do. You have no evidence.
>>> 
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>>>
>>>> _AndyJean1993_ \- 9 points - 6 hours ago  
> Right, yeah, cause “just friends” hold hands all the time and daydream about carving each other’s initials into a tree by the creek in “a spot just for the two of them, away from the rest of the world.” Did you even read the book, or are you one of those people who only watched the garbage SyFy movie? Because that thing rolled Melanie and Daniel into one character and made Howard into Jody’s PET FISH, it does not have anything to do with the original book, which is what we’re talking about in this thread.
>>>> 
>>>> And queer coded as in, like everything about Ellis? He’s directly referencing a whole host of gay tropes, being smaller and more effeminate than the rest of the boys. His relationship with his dad is 100% meant to read as a commentary on his dad’s fears about having a gay son. All the kids represent some kind of social issue that was shaping the world Denbrough grew up in and Ellis’s conversation with his dad when he tells him he’s feeling sick is absolutely meant to cement him as representative of the AIDS crisis. Denbrough even uses the exact same phrase to describe Ellis’s hair and the man leaving the gay bar in the flashback.
>>>> 
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>>>>
>>>>> _biggestloser1989_ \- 6 points - 6 hours ago  
> So what, it’s gay to have red hair now? Lots of books describe red hair as “fiery”, that doesn’t mean anything. And lots of people get AIDS so even if Ellis is meant to represent that (IF!) it doesn’t mean anything about him being gay. And Gene doesn’t have any of that, plus he’s always talking about Melanie, he’s obviously into her.
>>>>> 
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>>>>>
>>>>>> _AndyJean1993_ \- 5 points - 6 hours ago  
> jesus, no I’m not saying that having red hair makes someone gay. Do you know anything about literature analysis? Anything at all? Just because something isn’t spelled out in giant block letters at a third grade reading level doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> And yeah, sure, Gene talks about Melanie. He goes on about how her nose is too big for her face for three paragraphs and then the next chapter greets Ellis by pinching his nose and calling it adorable. Really very strong evidence of his heterosexuality, there.
>>>>>> 
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _biggestloser1989_ \- 3 points - 5 hours ago  
> Why are you so invested in this? They’re not gay, it’s in the fucking book, don’t you have anything better to do on a Friday night than make up wrong bullshit about characters you didn’t even write?
>>>>>>> 
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>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> _AndyJean1993_ \- 7 points - 5 hours ago  
> Buddy, I’m not the one overinvested here. They’re f i c t i o n a l c h a r a c t e r s. It doesn’t matter! If you disagree you can just ignore the subreddit and go on pretending that Gene and Ellis are totally just two platonic bros! I’m not stopping you! I’ll be right here with my goddamn English degree doing basic literary analysis without you!
>>>>>>>> 
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>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 3 more replies

_testtesttesttesttess_ \- 13 points - 5 hours ago  
yeah they’re super gay, it’s really cute! i ship them so much. i hope the new movie is good, the guy they cast to play gene is kind of weird looking but he was funny on snl that one time!

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> _ghtykjjljhfghjlhuyjadji9999_ \- -9 points - 4 hours ago  
> They aren’t FUCKING GAY oh my Christ, you people are obSESSED. Go watch some gay anime porn or something and leave us alone you freaks.
> 
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>
>> _AndyJean1993_ \- 19 points - 4 hours ago  
> Personal attacks are completely uncalled for. If you think something’s not a productive contribution to a conversation, ducking downvote it and move on. You don’t need to fucking personally insult people just because they have a different opinion about a book.
>> 
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>>
>>> _Comment removed by moderator - 4 hours ago_
>>>
>>>> _AndyJean1993_ \- 31 points - 4 hours ago  
> Fuck you, dude.
>>>> 
>>>> _Reply - Give Award - Report - Share - Save_

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> _biggestloser1989_ \- 4 points - 3 hours ago  
> I thought his netflix special was pretty funny.
> 
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>
>> _AndyJean1993_ \- 6 points - 3 hours ago  
> Tozier’s whole shtick is dull and derivative. He was funny on SNL because he wasn’t writing his own dialogue, so maybe that’ll save him here. I’m not holding my breath, though.
>> 
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